Safety Culture

Here are some characteristics of a good safety culture:

High priority: safety has the highest priority among competing constraints like cost and productivity
Accountability: processes ensure accountability such that design decisions are traceable back to the people and teams who made the decisions
Rewards: the organization motivates and supports the achievement of functional safety
Penalties: the organization penalizes shortcuts that jeopardize safety or quality
Independence: teams who design and develop a product should be independent from the teams who audit the work
Well defined processes: company design and management processes should be clearly defined
Resources: projects have necessary resources including people with appropriate skills
Diversity: intellectual diversity is sought after, valued and integrated into processes
Communication: communication channels encourage disclosure of problems

ISO 26262 does not cover quality management directly; however, quality management is a required part of safety culture.

Organizations need to have a quality management system in place that complies with quality management standards such as [ISO/TS 16949](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/TS_16949
) (replaced in 2016 by IATF 16949 or ISO 9001.